Diet studies

Diet analysis can help researchers understand not only what grizzly bears are eating, but how healthy the ecosystems are that the bears are living in.

The SRGBP has used various methods to study what grizzly bears in South Eastern British Columbia are feeding on. Some methods used are; observing feeding bears, examining sites visited by bears, analysing their droppings or scats for remains of what they ate, and by measuring stable isotope ratios of Carbon and Nitrogen.

Another diet analysis SRGBP has done is to determine the nutritional content of the food sources available to the bears. Researchers collected samples of their food sources every two weeks and analysed them for digestible energy and protein. In combination, these methods provide a picture of what the bears eat across their active year and, how important different foods are to the growth of both individual bears and the population.